The Resurrection of the South Seas of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 288 Inspecting the Arsenal

Zhu Hongyu began to visit the artillery workshop in front of him under the leadership of the old head Liu.

Old Liu pointed to the lathe in front of him and said.

"Thanks to the research institute for making this lathe, and the high-strength cutting tools used by the lathe!"

"The grinding of the barrel can be done by machinery, which saves a lot of effort for the workers and greatly improves the production efficiency!"

"In the past, polishing the rough embryos of cannons was a manual job!"

"It's still the kind of physical work that can only be done by master craftsmen!"

Zhu Hongyu nodded and said.

"Science and technology are primary productive forces, this is a good saying!"

The two talked in detail about the various problems that the arsenal faced in their daily work.

Old Liu said.

"His Royal Highness Jian Guo, a technician has made some suggestions for the improvement of artillery production. I don't know if it is feasible!"

"His Royal Highness Jian Guo please advise!"

Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly and said.

"Whether it is feasible or not, this innovative spirit is commendable!"

"Tell me, what is the suggestion?"

Old Liu scratched his head, then spoke.

"Flintlocks for cannons!"

"Since muskets can be fired with flint, what about cannons? Isn't it also possible?"

Zhu Hongyu stroked his chin, pondered with a pensive expression, and then spoke.

"Ok!"

"Installing flintlocks to cannons is indeed a development direction worth studying!"

At the very least, Zhu Hongyu knew that artillery that used matchlocks as fuzes would be eliminated sooner or later!

The future development direction of artillery is indeed flint!
Not to mention anything else, in terms of naval guns alone, the accuracy of flintlock naval guns is far superior to that of naval guns that use matchlocks to ignite.

Because there is a delay in the burning of the matchlock, and when the warships of the two sides are bombarding each other at sea, due to the wind and waves, the hull is shaking all the time.

In other words, the shooting elements have been changing irregularly!
The longer the firing delay, the lower the accuracy of the shelling will naturally be!

It is precisely because of this that the naval gun that uses matchlock to ignite the fire is quite hip-stretching in terms of shooting accuracy.

However, if you use flintlock to ignite, although the time you can save is not much, it can reduce the delay time of firing to the greatest extent.

The accuracy of shelling can naturally be greatly improved!

Thinking of this, Zhu Hongyu said.

"Go ahead and try boldly!"

"Don't be afraid that your idea is wrong. If you don't do experiments to verify it, you will never be able to prove whether an idea is right or wrong!"

"Try 1 new ideas, even if there are 99 mistakes, as long as one is successful, there will be no loss!"

"The world is constantly improving. Stopping means falling behind. If we are stagnant, other countries and nations in the world will not stop and wait for us!"

"Only by daring to try and constantly innovating, can we keep moving forward!"

Zhu Hongyu's voice fell, and the old Liu opened his mouth to speak.

"I would like to be taught, the old minister understands!"

Zhu Hongyu continued to speak.

"In fact, the development direction of artillery is not only from matchlock ignition to flintlock ignition!"

"And the rifling!"

"Since the musket is rifled, the range and accuracy of the musket can be greatly increased."

"What about the artillery?"

"Is it practicable to rifle a gun?"

"Try boldly, don't be afraid of making mistakes!"

Zhu Hongyu patted Old Liu on the shoulder and said.

Old Liu nodded vigorously, and then spoke.

"His Royal Highness Jian Guo, don't worry, the old minister will arrange the following craftsmen to prepare for relevant experiments!"

Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly, and then he went to visit other workshops under the leadership of the old head Liu.

Zhu Hongyu just walked around the arsenal, and he didn't go to see many workshops.

The first one to go is the gun workshop!
The musket is the main weapon currently equipped by the Liberation Army, and it has a high weight.

At present, there are two main research directions of the Liberation Army on muskets!
One for rifled muskets, and the other for developing breech-loading guns!
Needless to say, the rifling, the arsenal of the Liberation Army can do it.

The biggest problem is that it cannot be mass-produced, and Zhu Hongyu has no choice but to wait for the steam engine and machine tools to be put into production.

Then use a machine tool powered by a steam engine to solve this problem!
Then, if the gun is loaded, after Zhu Hongyu gave the blueprint, the arsenal had already made the finished product.

Of course, it's not the kind of breech-loading needle gun, and there are no metal fixed bullets.

The ignition method is still flintlock, but the loading method has changed from front loading to rear loading!

It's just a pity that due to the sealing problem caused by the machining accuracy, the rate of fire of the breech-loading gun is indeed much faster.

But in terms of range and power, the performance is very hip.

Once facing the heavy armor of the Qing army, even sticking to the face may not be able to break the armor!
Quite impractical!

Zhu Hongyu put down a breech-loading gun in his hand, patted the researcher on the shoulder, and said.

"keep it up!"

"Rear-loading guns must be the direction of the future, but the current technical conditions cannot be manufactured!"

Next, the group went to the bullet workshop.

The bullet workshop of the Restoration Army produces two kinds of bullets of different specifications, one is ordinary paper-cased bullets.

The other is a miniature bullet specially supplied to rifled guns!

The later research and development direction given by Zhu Hongyu is metal fixed bullets, but before Lei Gong can mass-produce them, metal fixed bullets are actually just an idea.

Speaking of which, I went back to chemical research.

Zhu Hongyu went through the various workshops that followed.

Bayonets, armor, shells, rockets...

Needless to say bayonets and armor, if you want to make a leap in product performance, you must get a technological breakthrough in materials science.

As for shells and rockets, the two workshops are working together to develop trigger fuzes!
The defect of the wooden bomb rest fuze is still too big!
But when the results will come out, no one knows!

Because, the current trigger fuze is only a PPT product, not even a laboratory product.

Because even the lab can't make it!

……

After the inspection of the arsenal was over, Zhu Hongyu still had no plans to go back to handle government affairs.

After finally coming out once, he also plans to inspect the shipyard!
For now, the Navy is still the lifeblood of the Liberation Army!
The reason why Zhu Hongyu was able to harass the coast of the Qing court was due to the speed advantage brought by the fleet and the ability of the fleet to transport supplies for the army.

So that the army can move forward lightly!
Otherwise, in the Battle of Suixi River in Leizhou Peninsula, how could a group of infantry from the Restoration Army chase and intercept the cavalry of the Qing Army?
Compared with the Cavite Shipyard controlled by the Spaniards, the current Huaxing Shipyard has more than doubled in size.

The area occupied and the number of workers are all going up!

Zhu Hongyu personally met the person in charge of the shipyard.

"The ministers are waiting to see His Royal Highness Jian Guo!"

All the people spoke in unison.

Zhu Hongyu just waved his hands.

"Free gift!"

"Take Gu to the berth for a visit!"

After all, he signaled the person in charge of the shipyard to lead the way.

Zhu Hongyu strode up to follow.

On the largest berth, lay the hull of a half-built battleship quietly.

The keel has been laid, and the riveting technique is being used to install the ribs and side panels for the hull.

"His Royal Highness, this is the first three-tier sailing battleship independently built by our shipyard!"

(End of this chapter)